H2O Go!

I don't know of any band that is more hit or miss than H2O. I like the band, but every other album seems to be a clunker. No doubt about it though, they came out strong with their first album.

With the 15 year anniversary of the debut LP, Bridge Nine took the opportunity to repress it again on vinyl. Typically, the label has been re-issuing those classics that were released before I got into Hardcore. Antidote, Agnostic Front, Project X and Underdog. Back when I was buying Armored Saint and Dio cassette tapes, those bands were completely unknown to me, and would not even register on my radar for another 3 or 4 years. The latest Bridge Nine re-issue is different because I was around for the original release.

I remember first picking up the H2O single from Equal Vision in 1995, and thinking that they were a pretty good melodic pop punk band. The label was releasing records from bands like Shift and Serpico, and I thought that H2O fit in with the poppy sound that the EVR was putting out there at the time. Then the album dropped and I was surprised. Holy shit, H2O suddenly sounded like a Hardcore band?!!? Of course the band would walk this fine line of melodic Hardcore for their entire career. Sometimes it worked...sometimes it didn't.

Yes, I got caught up in the H2O excitement with the release of thier covers album, and I felt the need to buy not one, but two copies of the Bridge Nine repress of the first album. A true classic.